There were four other film versions of the story of the mutiny on the Bounty prior to Roger Donaldson's 1984 The Bounty, suggesting just how enduring a tale it is. Adapted from Richard Hough's book Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian, The Bounty is the most nuanced and accurate portrayal of the story so far. It's difficult to make a bad film when you have an all-star cast such as this one - Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson and Mel Gibson all bring the story to life with predictably fine performances (with the exception of Gibson, who isn't quite in the same league as the heavyweight Brits he shares the screen with). The story of Christian's (played by Gibson) mutiny against Bligh (Hopkins) drops the simplistic portrayal of Bligh as a villainous character as well as showing Christian's doubts and regrets - the two, after all, were thought to have been friends, an aspect missing from previous film adaptations. The Bounty was originally a long term project for the great British director David Lean - with his track record of sumptuous looking epics it would have been interesting to see how it would've turned out if he'd stayed at the helm. As it is, Donaldson still delivers a fine film shot with a feel for the scale of the venture, even if the Vangelis soundtrack does occasionally feel rather out of place.
